- UCLA Economics is notoriously theory-heavy, and no class demonstrates this better than Econ 102 with Professor McDevitt. Some of the high-level ideas are interesting and relate well to general economic thinking, but all of the models are extremely simple (relative to the complex nature of national economies), full of what I call "voodoo math" (basically math in econ classes that is there just for the sake of being there), and ripe with key assumptions that are never true in the real world (such as prices being fixed in the short term). It's a true shame that we have to take classes like these that are a complete waste of students' time and mental energy.
- There are three exams that make up your entire grade (20% Midterm 1, 25% Midterm 2, 55% Final) and all exams are open-note (I slaughtered a small forest with the amount of notes I had for the final). There are a few free response questions, which are usually just variations of examples in lecture (just print out the lecture notes, and you'll be fine). The multiple choice have usually ~9 options that you can pick from, and the last 4 options are "Choose this one if you think 2 of the above are right", "Choose this one if you think 3 of the above are right", and "Choose this one if you think none of the above are right". Those tripped me up, as I usually was one the fence about one statement, and that determined which of the last 4 answers I chose.
- Lectures are boring, but a good introduction to the material. I stopped going to lecture after the second midterm and my final exam grade definitely reflected this. It is hard to focus (especially if the class is 3:30-4:45 pm, as ours was), and I was usually dozing off after 30 minutes.
- My strategy for the final was to not learn the material, but to print out all the practice questions and remember the questions, not the answers. Then, during the final, I would read the question and simply flip through my notes to see the similar question I had already printed out, and map that response to the question on the final. This worked remarkably well (especially considering I did not understand any of the material but rather just copied graphs) and honestly a strategy I highly recommend if you don't care enough to understand the useless material and your GPA could take the hit (I was at a 3.9 before this quarter and am now at a 3.8). My sanity was more important than my grade, and I'm so happy with my decision to prioritize a social life and better grades in my other classes than grinding on the pointless material of this class that would've been forgotten immediately after the final anyway.
- Overall, I'm very happy with my grade. I simply wanted to pass the class and did the bare minimum of studying to do well on the exams and not have to retake it. The curve was very generous and McDevitt was helpful with lots of office hours, though the nature of the material made the entire class boring, useless, and a complete waste of time. I learned more about macroeconomics in my high school AP Macroeconomics class and reading The Wealth of Nations than in this entire course.
- Good luck! Make sure you bring a pillow to lecture, as you're sure to fall asleep within the hour. :)

This class is hard no matter the professor. That being said, I would reccomend to take it with McDevvit. While lectures are kind of hard to follow, especially since he writes in chalk with hard to read handwriting, all the lectures are posted online and he has a copy available of all the notes needed for the class. He gives out plenty of studying material, so you don't really need the textbook. One stressful thing is that the final is 55% of the grade and the two midterms make up the rest, so there is high pressure for those tests. Overall, hard class that you will have to study a lot for but a solid professor for the class.

Tests make up 100% of the grade. Multiple choice, a-j in some cases, multiple may be true/false. No graded assignments. Teaching was mediocre and lack of graded assignments reeks of laziness or department being cheap. Because of how the "multiple choice" questions are designed and extreme time constraint on exams, your curved grade is a random number generator between 50 and 100. Lectures were also boring, essentially a read aloud of his posted notes. Overall, not engaging, boring, lazy teaching and would not recommend over watching YouTube on Macroeconomics.

He was a nice guy and all but his class honestly was something else. 2 Midterms and a final was your entire grade. The avg our first midterm was like a 60 and the second was a 75, and for these he will say that it is MC/Essay but the MC's are honestly the hardest part of the whole thing. The options basically go from a-g so take that as you will.

Pretty chill if you actually make sure to watch the lectures & take good notes. His exams allow a cheat sheet but you're really pressed for time on the midterms. His multiple choice isn't actually multiple choice so it's misleading and takes a lot longer than expected. Overall, I'd recommend taking this class with McDevitt but make sure not to lag on lectures

NOT NICE PROF
ARN'T WILLING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS
KINDA PRETENTIOUS HYPOCRITE

This class was definitely harder than expected and I think the bruinwalk grade distribution is MISLEADING. I think that the material is relatively straightforward and McDevitt is a good professor but I think there's the impression that Econ 134 is a pretty easy doable class, which honestly, I disagree. The material is like microeconomics on crack but environmental themed, which was cool for a bit until I was doing shifts on 5 graph systems. The exams are also pretty challenging, especially the multiple choice. I think if graphs are your strength this class is good for you, but if you're not into that stuff I'd pass on Econ 134. Also, your whole grade is based on exams so if you're bad at test taking that's another thing to consider, but he curves pretty generously.

This class was a pretty average econ elective. Grades are based on midterm 1 (20%) midterm 2 (25%) and final (55%). The material itself was fairly difficult, although the first part of the class builds off of econ 101 (present value, externalities, taxes, etc.). McDevitt is a solid lecturer. He writes incredibly disorganized notes during lectures but also provides typed lecture notes so it wasn't a huge problem. His tests are fair, and he provides study questions and a sample test, but the long multiple choice questions are a bit ridiculous. Overall 6/10.

Easy class. Prof. provide clear lecture notes, you can print them for the exam. He also provides sample exams, and practice questions, that could provide you with a basic idea about the exam. He gives a review class before the exam, pays attention to what he said, and it is almost the questions ask in exam. However, if you are not strong in econ and familiar with 101 materials, it might be a hard class. the class average is quite low, but he provides curve

To get it out of the way, no, this is not an easy Econ elective. However, I don't think any of McDevitt's classes are easy, and he himself admits his tests are quite difficult. Nonetheless, unlike most Econ classes, he is clear in what he expects from you and is going to test you on. You definitely have to put the work in, but you will learn a lot. I can't emphasize it enough, go to his extra office hours the weekend before the exam!!!! He will give out clues of some of the harder questions that might pop up.

Grade is made up of two midterms and a final, and the final was not completely cumulative. He records his lectures, which is extremely helpful because the content is quite complex and he goes quite fast in his lectures. He uploads typed notes so you technically don't have to take any, but I would HIGHLY recommend taking the notes yourself instead. He is EXTREMELY big on graphs and you have to know how to use them. All of his exams are completely open note, but that does not make the exams a cakewalk.

I studied for all 3 exams for at least a week each, and still got a D, a B, and a C on each of them respectively. However, he curves the class so I ended up with a B.